Arpeggio of Deep Black
by Kaif
Summary: Oyodo, an old Fog ship lost in time awakens in a new era of space exploration and mystery. Kongou, her sister from the old times tries to make sense of a conspiracy threatening peace between Fog and Humanity. And Takao from this time, who got her ship body stolen, is out looking for it. Together they must resolve a mess none of them seen before.
1. Wakeup call

What is a dream? A quirk of consciousness, a divine insight, a brief hallucination, or another life lived before one's wake? Oyodo did not know the answer. Neither she knew if what she was seeing was a true dream or simply a temporary projection created by her core. She sat on a bench on a cliff, overlooking a sea of lush green, the wind making waves on the grass, this field stretching over to the horizon and beyond. She could not tell if she were close or far from the sea, and somehow she didn't want to stand up and walk to find out. She chose to simply sit still and admire this beauty. All mental models were created to copy and mimic humans, to try and adapt their thinking and their tactics to achieve ultimate victory for the Fog. But Oyodo was different. A namesake of a command vessel from the old war, she was specifically designed to study humans and provide insight. Her intended purpose was not to fight, but to observe. Collect data. Run comparisons. Or so she thought, until she went down in a violent storm, all alone, never reaching her next destination. Through her observations, she obtained more and more human characteristics than she hoped for, one of which is an eye for beauty. And so, she chose to sit and watch, endlessly, at this waving sea of grass, glistening in bright sun. She couldn't tell how much time she spent in this perfect harmony until she noticed something was off. The cool breeze on her cheek suddenly gone, the wind, stopped. The lush greenery she so dearly admired started turning gray from the horizon. Out of nowhere, with each blink she made, stones appeared from the grass, filling the field, one row at the time. Somewhere deep inside her, she almost understood it was her doing. Or it wasn't yet, but soon will. Or it could be. She was not sure. As the last row approached the cliff, she stood up from her bench and looked down the cliff. She could see it was tombstones now, but no names were written on them. And suddenly, the darkness came.

Oyodo woke up in a brightly lit room, surrounded by people in sickeningly-white clothes. Doctors, her experience told her. Or scientists, perhaps? Everyone had this look of bewilderment on their faces. Some were smiling, though, one of them was this man, staring right at her face. His face was a bit old, but not quiet. Late 40's, Oyodo tried to guess. In any other case, she would have used her immense computational abilities as a Fog ship to determine almost every aspect of this man, but Oyodo knew she couldn't. She never knew this feeling before, but everything was telling her she was low on nanomaterial. She couldn't do her tricks anymore, couldn't summon even basic weapons, couldn't summon her ship body. All that she had gave the impression that her nanomaterial supply was coldly calculated exactly to keep up her mental model and cognitive abilities. She stood up and tried to move, scaring a few men, but leaving the one who approached her unfazed. She fell.

"Whoa-whoa, lady, easy there!" The man said, extending his hand, gesturing Oyodo to take it. She did not refuse. English, she recalled. As she got up, still holding this man's hand, she asked.

"Where am I and who are you?"

The man's smile grew even wider. "You can talk!" he exclaimed, turning around to address his supposed colleagues. "She talks, everyone! She moves, she talks, **she thinks!** She asked me questions! I think it's safe to say that our little operation was a success! Now all of you may go, though I'm sure you all are excited to stay and watch, we've a protocol here. I can assure you, everyone will get a chance at speaking with her, but for now I must address her questions and run some more tests on her basic functionality before we proceed any further. I'm sure you'll understand. As I promised, we **will** be holding a banquet for our success tomorrow, so you might as well start preparing!"

Disappointed and grumpy, the staff began to leave through the only door to this room, with the man turning around to address the patient Oyodo.

"Now, my dear, my name is Sebastian Carols, and you are aboard the glorious Horizon 6 station!"

"Station?" Oyodo asked. "Under the sea? Or how far are we inland?"

"Inland!" Sebastian exclaimed, before bursting into cheerful laughter. "Inland, that she said! No, dear. We're neither on land, nor are we under the sea, but details, details. Details could wait! Carefully now, follow me, we'll run some basic tests to assess your current state, and I'll explain everything to you later."

With the waving gesture, the man called her over to a small circle on the ground.

"Now stand here, darling, spread your arms."  
Oyodo did what he asked. Peculiar machine rose from the floor. A metallic tube surrounded her, flashed a light, and then went down.

"Okay, now look up. U-huh. Down. Now left. Right. Touch your nose"

Oyodo followed orders again.

"Okay, you're all set! I think the protocol tells to run more and more tests, but you're a mental model after all, I don't think we need to. Heck, we don't even have to calibrate you, you seem totally fine to me! Now stay here for a while."

Sebastian retreated from the room, leaving Oyodo for alone for a while. She noticed she was just standing there, completely naked. Not that she cared, but she the man didn't seem to mind it either. Or did he? Taking her time, she looked around the room. Most of it were scientific equipment, with no chairs or benches, and a lot of control panels. In the center, where she woke up, a large machine was mounted on the ceiling. She guessed this is what was used to bring her back from her "dream". After a while, Sebastian returned, holding a set of fresh clothes to his chest with one arm, and a small chair with the other.

"Here. Take a seat, get changed. Can't have you walking around the station like that, flashing your valuables and all."

Her clothes were rather plane, and it seemed they were more suited for a male. A pair of khaki jeans, some basic underwear (thankfully for women), a gray military t-shirt, with what she presumed to be Human Armed Forces insignia, and a deep brown turtleneck sweater.

"Was it done on purpose?"  
"What?"  
"Your body. Was it made this curvaceous on purpose? You were intended to seduce humans?"  
Oyodo thought. She wasn't sure why herself. She wasn't sure it was safe to share her guesses with humans, her being on the opposite side after all. But this Sebastian seemed to pay no mind to the fact that he was facing the enemy. He was strangely relaxed, and honestly, she would have attacked him were it not for his unusual hospitality. She decided that if she is to get out of here, she had to earn his trust. She was weak and helpless after all. And she also started dressing up.

"Not really sure. My purpose was to observe you. Infiltrate your society at some occasions. I was made into an expert at gathering info. How your society works. Relationships. Customs. Rules. Interactions."

"Interesting. So, this form was supposed to ease that process, I guess… Oh dear. Dressed already! We figured we shouldn't give you any more of nmat than we did, in case you decide to exchange your clothes for a weapon. I'm sure you understand the precautions."

"I do. Now where to, Sebastian?"

Sebastian contemplated for a while, Oyodo waited. Patience, as some humans said, is among the best virtues.

"Well, I suppose we should get you a security clearance of some level, so you can travel with some relative freedom. No restricted areas, but you should be able to walk along the general quarters…"

But Sebastian was unable to finish. A sharp shriek of emergency alarm interrupted him. The speaker spoke with a voice of a very worried and very young man.

"This is control tower, we have code red, I repeat, code red! Horizon 6 is under attack from unknown hostiles. This is not a drill! We are under siege!"

"Well, Oyodo, I think plans just changed. Follow me." Sebastian opened the door with his cardkey and waved Oyodo to follow. She could read an expression of worry on his face. They followed few corridors, taking turns here and there, until they finally arrived to a room that loosely resembled a decontamination area Oyodo seen at several human naval bases.

"Now careful darling, we only got a centrifuge installed for this section, darn things are expensive." As Sebastian stepped into the room, he suddenly flew up a tiny bit, grabbing the nearest railing on the wall. Oyodo followed him in, without asking any questions, and felt a strange sensation. It was as if she suddenly lost all the weight she had to her body, or rather, she stopped feeling the pull beneath her feet. Zero g, she figured. What in the world was happening right now?

"Okay, when I open this door, we're in the military zone. Follow me, don't ask questions, don't hesitate, just follow me closely and you will be alright."

Sebastian punched in some code at the panel in the opposite exit, and large, metal doors closed behind her. After a brief steam shower, which Oyodo though was a dcon, another door opened. And she couldn't believe her eyes. Before her, lied a long corridor, two sides of which were covered in thick glass. Right outside, she had seen an installation floating in nothingness. Behind it, a black canvas, painted with bright white dots. Space, Oyodo thought. She's in space. She stared at this scene in total disbelief. This could not be right. She heard that humans could launch satellites into space. She heard that before the Fog came, humans used to launch limited parties into space and to Earth's closes satellite, Moon. But this… if what they used to do was ugly, cumbersome capsules with no more than five-ten humans, how much technological advancement had to happen for humans to build such a thing? Now she understood. This wasn't underwater or land station. This was a space station, and as she looked through the other window, she realized even more bizarre thing. There was a planet visible on the other side. And it didn't look like anything she had seen in human science books. This wasn't Solar System. Not at all.

"Don't just stand there, keep up!" Sebastian's voice reached her. She grabbed another railing, and gently pushed herself forward. As she flew through this umbilical, she noticed small explosions and what seemed to be outlines of ships of some sort. Space ships. There was a battle going on, and it was close.

"Come, hurry up!" Sebastian tried to speed her up. Oyodo begun putting even more effort into propelling herself, gaining momentum. "Be careful not to overdo it, with this nanomaterial levels you're not going to take damage lightly!"

"Is this why you told me to follow you without questions? Where are we going?"  
"We're going where it's safe, I don't think we have much time left, so would you please stop asking me around and just follow me?"

She nodded. Not that she had much choice. The PA system was busy with chatter. Various names and ranks popped, people were called in and out of their posts, station was at full alert. Suddenly, a violent twitch shook the station. Sebastian's expression turned dead grim.  
Somewhere, in the distant, but not that far away, a drilling sound could be heard.  
"Boarding parties. Crap. We're quickly running out of options." Sebastian explained, as he carefully took turn after turn in this bizarre maze. The farther they went into the station, the more of personnel she could see, but all of them paid the duo no mind. They were busy with more important things. The smell of burning rubber and fried metal filled the air. It was obvious that this station was already compromised, and possibly for good. Oyodo though about her plan, and she could think of none. She was alone, trapped in an unknown place, far away from Earth. Far away from her fleet. Her fate depending on one fragile human, and she was no better. Limited, vulnerable, confused. This wasn't the state Fog ships were familiar with.

After some time, they stumbled upon several bodies lying on the ground, their uniforms resembling those who they met on the way here. Light combat armor. Security, perhaps. All dead, but their weapons left lying beside the corpses. Sebastian took a tactical vest from one of the bodies and handled it to Oyodo.

"Here. Take this on. And pick up a rifle. You'll need it to protect yourself."  
"Can't you just take me to the nanomaterial storage so I can replenish it and just fight them with what I have?" Oyodo asked a rightful question. The tide had turned. She was sure both understood that giving her access to her abilities increased their chances of survival.

"You see, about that… Your nanomaterial levels… well, I lied. It's not as much of a precaution as it a limitation of your core. When we found you on the seabed back on Earth, you were so deep down that your core was damaged, in a way. You can take all the nanomaterial you want, but you won't be able to hold it. In addition to you buying certain ability uses with it, it just kind of slips away naturally, at an alarming rate. What you have now is indeed a bare minimum for the security, but even if I to give you nanomaterial, you're almost at your threshold. You can store some more, but not much more. And I'm afraid that means you're as vulnerable as I or any other human are."

She contemplated, for a moment. And took that rifle.

"You should be safe, if you remember some basic rules. You can't protect yourself against extreme heat, extreme cold, low pressure, high pressure, physical damage, chemical damage, EMPs. You can take a certain amount of damage, much-much more than a human can, but still very little if you compare yourself to your sisters. So, watch out. What you have can power your body enough to restore any damage, but it will take some time. Take too much, and you will be reduced to your core and run full autistic. You don't want that to happen to you, not right now".

She could do nothing but agree. This was her reality now, and she had to cope with it. She had no orders, possibly no one to take those orders from, and for the first time she felt this strange sensation of being free. Of being able to decide on her fate herself. But Sebastian sounded like he knew about other fog ships. Was there a version of the Fog that exists to this day? Or was he referring to other ships, just like her, found somewhere on Earth? Oyodo though about this, as she followed Sebastian around corridors that seemed endless. If she was free now, was it a wise idea to search for the others? It seemed to her, that if she was so far ahead in the future, there was no point for her to pursue her orders anymore. Maybe it was best to take this freedom for yourself and see what this world had to offer to her? It sure seemed exciting. If this station wasn't in Solar System, then humans found a way to make their spaceships go beyond their home system. Endless world was awaiting, if she could only drop her allegiance to the Fog and grab that freedom. The though she may have found repulsive back on Earth, but right now it sounded so compelling she couldn't resist it.

"You said there were other Fog ships?" Oyodo asked, carefully.

"Yes, there are. Not much is known about the previous Fog wars, we kind of screwed our planet up, sans the interstellar expansion, but after almost five hundred years, the Fog appeared again. Though, this time, we could fight it well, and right now we should have been in a peace treaty."

"Should have been? You implying this is Fog's doing?"  
"I initially presumed so. But after hearing boarding equipment… Fog doesn't send boarding parties. They have mental models, but they never tried to board a station or a ship before as an act of assault. They usually just destroy ships, or wait until we surrender to board and negotiate. If this is indeed Fog, we're seeing some new shit tonight."

"Tonight? How do you tell the time of the day?"

Sebastian turned around to face her after he made another puss of the railing, and pulled his sleeve. A PDA was wrist-mounted to his hand.

"I have a clock. We're not living under a rock, you know."  
"Figures. Where are we headed now?"

"Bridge. It's much-much safer there and… Holy shit"

Sebastian opened another door and stopped. Some unidentified men, roughly counting nine were standing in a large hall, in the uniform Oyodo hasn't seen here yet. They were overlooking corpses of the security staff lying on the floor. Upon noticing the duo, one of them quickly exclaimed "It's her!" and everyone suddenly opened fire. Without hesitating, Oyodo gave her weapon a quick look and after guessing how to operate it, returned fire. To the best of her abilities, she popped in and out of the cover, marking hit after hit, until a group she now counted as twelve were all dead. In the heat of the battle, she didn't notice that Sebastian didn't manage to get into cover in time. She overestimated his reflexes, or perhaps underestimated hers. Only now she found him, lying on the floor in a puddle of his own blood. Oyodo gave his wound a look. It was bad. Relying on her knowledge of human anatomy, she deducted that Sebastian didn't have much time left. She leaned on him. Coughing, he looked back at Oyodo and slowly begun talking.

"Hey, ugh, lift me up. We should find me some Insta-patch, quick. Come one, give me a hand…" Oyodo tried to lift him up, which brought only more pain to him. She didn't know why, but somehow she didn't want to tell him the truth. She felt a mix of thoughts running through her head. A liquid came from under her eye. Was this sadness that humans always referred to? But she was above that. What must be done, must be done.

"I'm sorry, old man." She didn't know why she said sorry, but humans find it appropriate. "I don't think you'll make it."

"I see." Sebastian looked sad. Struggling, he slowly took his PDA off his wrist. "Here. Take this. There is some useful info there, maybe. This hall, there's a door right on the opposite end. Take a few more right turns, there's an elevator there. Use my card. You can take it up, straight to the bridge. Tell them… Tell them I sent you. They'll know what to do." He coughed again. "And tell them to find my daughter, Samantha. Please. She was somewhere with the students who came for a practice cruise. I only, only pray they are okay. That she is okay…".

Oyodo took the PDA and his card that he offered, and held his hand. She tried to direct some heat into it. Humans were supposed to be warm. She pulled all the knowledge she had on human death. It told her humans like closure in their final moments. This man brought her back into existence, so she figured she should return the favor, somehow.

"I can see you trying. But the wound… god, the pain…"

The wound was fatal, transporting him wasn't an option, would bring even more pain and even quicker death. But she couldn't leave him in such state either. If left here, he would slowly die, bleeding, feeling all this pain. She never knew pain, but the look on Sebastian's face told her everything. Was this tears she felt on her face? Why? Mustering all her strength, she stood up, took her rifle and aimed. Then closed her eyes and remembered that field from her "dream" again. Thirteen tombstones had names now, all freshly engraved. She couldn't make twelve of them, but the last one she could read. "Sebastian Carols" was written on it. She pulled the trigger. And the thunder filled the hall.


	2. Late to the party

In a dimly lit room, filled thick with cigarette smoke and a mild aroma of mint vape, five man sat around the table. One of them, dressing and old-fashioned suit, lit another cigarette, of which he lost count long ago, and spoke, softly, trying to hide the tension in his voice.

"Gentlemen, I don't think I have to explain to you what just went down less than twenty hours ago, but for the sake of having a common ground, I'll lay down the basics. Less than twenty hours ago, a massive, coordinated strike was carried out on no less than seven of our research and military facilities by an unknown force. They have appeared seemingly out of nowhere, using a portable jump beacons, made a clean, full" and he made a strong accent on word "full" "sweep of all the facilities, leaving not a soul behind, and then retreated into unknown jump destination using the same beacon. The only survivors left were several ships stationed in the orbit who were lucky enough to retreat to the nearest accelerator, plus a small fleet station at Horizon-6, who gave a fight back, although with very heavy casualties. So far no group have come out to claim responsibility, plus a private statement from High Flagship herself, claiming the Fog too has no connections to this attack. None of our specialists were able to identify the signatures. Their ships are unmarked, classes, types - unknown. Every unit that we managed to destroy at Horizon were completely destroyed by an unknown singularity device. Facilities targeted varied in their nature and purpose. It is unknown exactly what are the enemy's goals, nor who is exactly the enemy here."  
Silence again fell across the room. The men present here comprised the so called "Special Defence Committee", or SDC for short. A special committee of high ranking intelligence directors, aimed at ensuring the security of Admiralty space and dealing with external threats not pertaining to the Fog. The Fog was in jurisdiction of the Admiralty's highest ranks, and was obsolete for twelve years, when the treaty was signed. Usually, their cases were small terrorist attacks. Separatist groups from both humans and rouge Fog cells still not happy with the apparent peace. Incidents, and subsequent operations that were easy to hide, easy to solve. This time, it was different. These men were faced with circumstances nobody could understand. An attack that can't be hidden from the media. An attacker that can't be identified. And a circumstances that clearly shown that more is to be expected. Questions arise, but the most prominent one was even not "why?" and not "who?". The question everybody had on their minds was "when?".

One of the people at the table lifted his hand. He was wearing a Director's shoulder badge on his uniform. Naval Intelligence officer, Director Philip O'Neel.

"I'm sure we're full of questions right now, most important is when and where can we expect the next attack."

Nobody said a word. He continued.  
"But the question that is even more pressing, and the one we have to find and answer for, and fast, is how in the hell are we going to answer all others."

The man in the suit, only referred to by others as "The Commissioner", waved his hand at another man, in his late twenties, wearing a Lieutenant badge.

"Duncan, call her in."  
Lieutenant nodded, stood up, and went to the door. He opened it, and called made a welcoming gesture to somebody waiting in the corridor.

"Shibuya, the board wants to see you."

Kongo walked into the room. She was wearing a blue synthetic jacket, sporting a clean white shirt underneath, and old, but clean brown military cargos. Her hair arranged into one neat ponytail. She already stood in this very room, no longer than a month ago, trying to warn the SDC about an oncoming attack. They didn't listen. They mocked her for having a Fog origin. They called her a spy. They laughed. Except for the Commissioner, Duncan and O'Neel. But Duncan was only an assistant, and four others wanted her out. Now, they wanted her back and with answers. Answers she now couldn't give to them because it was too late. The case she was pushing had since gone cold. The contacts, the suspects - disappeared without a trace into the thin air.

"Agent, I believe you know what you were called in for." The Commissioner spoke.

"Yes." The answer was short, but sharp.

"You may begin"

Kongou placed a data device on the table. A screen on the wall turned bright blue. Several faces, photos of cargo, maps appeared on it.

"Two months ago, following a bioweapon incident in Cydonia, Mars, an existence of a large, organised group was uncovered, along with evidence of this group's activity across the Admiralty territory and beyond. Two months ago, I stood in this room, requesting permission to conduct further investigations regarding this group, for I had evidence of a large scale search and run operation to be conducted on our territory. Because of my origin and limitations placed on me, I could not access the information which is normally available to my rank and occupation, so I could not commit this investigation on my own, without SDC approval. Two of you gave a yes. Two of you vetted me."

Kongou made a swiping gesture on the screen. What was on it was replaced with images of destroyed facilities, casualty lists, damage reports.

"This, I believe, is the result. With all my respect to your rank and position, I'm afraid you **fucked up**."

Again, nobody said a word. The remaining members of the committee who vetted her before could only avert their eyes, trying to look anywhere but at her, the screen or each other.

"I can take a guess, you want me to answer the hard questions following this attack. I'm afraid, I can't give you the answers." She made another swipe. Faces appeared. "I had intel suggesting there was no less than fifty moles inside the Admiralty forces, of varying rank and occupation. Look hard at their faces." After a minute of silence, Kongou picked and enlarged three mugshots. "Remember their faces? Names sound any familiar?"

Committee had no answer. Those three were their colleagues, who also vetted Kongou in her request.

"Those three, and forty seven more disappeared without a trace within five minutes following the attack. This is not just a fuck up. This is massive fuck up, gentlemen. The intelligence fucked up. Inner security fucked up. Naval Initiative fucked up. Pretty much all of the admiralty fucked up. This could have been prevented. But alas, we fucked up. Me. You. Everyone. What we have now is nothing. Evidence destroyed. Everything save from the copy of MY report from Cydonia that I had left. People gone. Nobody to answer, nobody to take accountable. Nobody put people who vetted me back then. The moles would have said "no" still. But you two, could have said "yes". With Commissioner and Director O'Neel, that would have been four against two. Yet you didn't. You allowed your prejudice and position could your judgement in the face of the facts. Now you have only my report and knowledge, a devastating attack and no answers. Now I ask you, what do you expect me to do?"

Silence, again.

"I have a good news, to brighten up the mood. Not all trails had gone cold. But I have to restate my request once again. I need full access to every bit of classified data I request. I need a team and I need time. And you will have your answers, gentlemen. All of them. I cannot say how soon, but I will damn make sure it will be soon enough to prevent another disaster."

Silence. A recurring pattern with this meeting. After a few moments, Commissioner and O'Neel looked at the remaining two members. They looked at each other. One spoke.

"Sit down, Agent Shibuya."

"And?"

"We'll start with a team."

Kongou took a free seat across the table. Carefully took some paper copies out of her bag, perhaps a dozen, and tossed them in men's direction.

"How big are we talking about?" The same man who ordered her to sit talked.

"I'm talking two, but at the same time I'm talking more."  
"Explain?"  
"For start, I want my old partner from Cydonia incident back. This time, I want him strictly as a pilot, his official occupation. He will pilot "Hopscotch". I also need someone who can be trusted and who has extensive expertise in special operations. We're talking black ops. The dossiers I have presented contain possible candidates, profiled personally by me, but I trust you also know a few yourself. Each of them must have a team of their own under command and extensive expertise at most types of combat possible. Covert Ops. Combat intelligence. EVA Ops. Interplanetary ops. I need the best unit you can pick from these, as I have no experience with any of these people. The dossiers all contain people who match all my expectations except relative experience, as I have never worked with any of them. I trust you to pick the best one out and send them and their team to me as soon as you can. I don't care what they are doing, I don't care where they are doing it right now, I need them no farther than two days from now. This is what I meant by "Two but more". I care about commander, but I trust that commander will have a unit to match. I also need a ship large enough to house my "Hopscotch" and a Captain up to the task. I need the fastest, most discreet ship you can think of, and it has to be independent. I give you two days for everything. Those are my conditions. Don't like them? No answers for you."

"Agent, you are falling out of line.."  
"Yes. And I feel like I have a moral obligation to. After our last meeting, I will be the one making demands here. You want answers, I want means for obtaining them. And to kickstart everything, I need every bit of info on operation "Match Fuze" conducted fifty years ago. Every bit of info. Everything. Questions?"

Commissioner lit another cig.

"You will have everything. The info by the time you will be in car on your way to the Terminal. The team by tomorrow's noon."

"And the ship?"

"I've picked a captain beforehand, he is on standby in the orbit, docked with "Providence" station. Captain Chihaya".

"The junior or the senior?"

"The junior. Aboard the "Iona". With Hopscotch already inside. You are free to leave Providence as soon as your team is aboard, stocked and ready. You will have full authority over almost anyone for the duration of your investigation, for the rest, you contact me and we'll grant you temporary permissions. Before then, you are not allowed to leave."

Commissioner then stood up and addressed everyone in the room.

"I believe this concludes this meeting. We will be awaiting further reports, Agent."

In the corridors of the Admiralty building, Director O'Neel had caught up with Kongou.

"Pretty impressive show you put up there, Kongou. It was a bluff, wasn't it? We have nothing."

"We have enough to get us started"

"The Match Fuze angle? I sure hope so."

"It's not much, but I believe it can help us find out what they were searching for."

"Yeah, all we can do is just sit there with our thumbs up our asses and cross our unoccupied fingers for you."

"I'll better not keep you waiting then!"

"Uhuh. Oh, by the way, have you met Gunzou before?"  
"I did. But not this one. I wonder if they look similar."  
"Oh. How was he, six hundred years ago?"  
"Righteous, relentless, focused. But also kind. He wanted the best of everybody. Including the Fog."

"Did you like him?"

"I was interested in him, yes. For a while anyway, until I disappeared. Maybe even liked him. Maybe even in **that** way. But that was long ago. Not long for me, but still. Past is past. I'm amused that history repeated itself in that way, but he's not the Gunzou I knew. I looked the profile. I find this funny."

"Well, you'll like the lad. Matches the qualities you described, plus packs quite some charisma, that devil. To the point where he openly dates his own damn ship"

Kongou chuckled.

"My one wasn't that bold, I guess. And listen, one more thing."  
"Horizon?"

"Yes. Any news on Grass Hopper?"

"Last time I was able to raise them, they were hiding somewhere in the veil, trying to refuel and repair, with Yokosuka's finest students as it's crew. And some Archeon merks, actually the last in existence, but they don't know about it, yet. And our friend there… She's a captain now."

"Really? Her? Well, raise them again. Break the news. Oyodo is technically in possession of Admiralty vessel. We let her escape on it, it's time for her to start returning the favor."

"What do I tell her?"

"Feed her the coordinates of that Medusa vessel I tracked from Cydonia. Let her investigate it. Pass some intel from my report, specifically on that bioweapon it was carrying, and tell her to be careful. And keep it under wraps. She's the only ace we have in our deck, we can't let anybody find out she survived Horizon 6."

O'Neel nodded, and they split their ways on yet another intersection. Kongou stepped out of the Admiralty building. It was early winter, and it was snowing. First time this year. A car was waiting by the stairs, ready to take her to the Terminal. She got in and closed the door. It made a loud noise.


	3. The Husk

Takao stared silently at the radar grid. It's been half a year, and she still couldn't get used to operating things in analog way. Yes, her mental model could do whatever any human could do, it was what she was designed for, but her lack of ability to interface with any human tech had her to resort to analogue manipulation with every piece of electronics. And she hated it to guts. Six months ago, Takao got jumped but an unknown assailant while she was traversing the Far Frontier to regroup with her sisters. Someone jumped her, somehow knocked her out and somehow stole her ship body. If anybody would have heard this story, they would have laughed it off. Except even High Flagship herself was unable to locate it. The core remained with Takao's mental model, so she wasn't at risk. But without a ship, she was of little use to the Fog since the war was over. She was no spy, and there could be no other use for her. So, like many of her sisters, she got relived of her duty and was set free into the vast, cold and empty galaxy. Some Fog ships wanted to establish cultural contact with humans. Some wanted to assimilate. Some wanted to follow Iona's example and maybe start something with a human. Takao had no purpose. Many sisters tried to give her advice, tried to bring her to parties, find her a job, but she just knew it wasn't for her. For a month, she desperately tried to find some info about her ship, any info. She failed. For a few weeks, she tried to mingle with humans in a hopeless effort to find some reason for her to simply exist. And it was then when she got contacted by a very strange mental model, from a very strange source. It was something under the name of Kongo Shibuya, claiming to be both a former fog ship and human government official. She took pity in her cause, and offered her help.

In a few days, she was arranged to work as an engineer on a human salvaging-slash-rescue vessel, the Semaphore. Semaphore was an independent contractor, working in the Far Frontier, either salvaging lost ships, or doing rescue operations for companies that would rather not have any official rescue forces handle the extractions. Exactly what she needed at the time. It was an easy job, it paid well, so she could stay afloat, and most importantly, it dealt with the ships lost in the Far Frontier. A chance to maybe, eventually, shed some light on _her_ missing ship and possibly get it back. Months went by, captain Jeb Adams took a liking to her. After some time, their XO had to be discharged after he got some serious injury during one of their salvaging operations, and so she became the new XO. To her own amusement, she began to understand what is it that her sisters found in humans and their society. She had a job. Not the one she really imagined herself doing, but she chose it consciously. No hierarchy to hold her down. She did a good job, but she didn't receive commendations or praise like she used to in the Fog. She got promoted instead. Her status in the hierarchy changed, or perhaps there was no hierarchy to begin with. Only positions, and people get to occupy them not by birthright, but by merit. Meritocracy was a very fresh and very appealing idea to Takao, suddenly. So now she was sitting on the bridge of the Semaphore, staring intently into the radar grid, scouting for her next target.

Minutes and minutes went by, yielding nothing. Their latest contract was a ship with a very weird name. "Polybius", a fifty-year-old vessel which didn't even had a transponder back at the time supposedly vanished during the last decade. Now, Semaphore was contacted by some research institute from the Inner Ring systems, promising a hefty amount of credits, a set of coordinates and a chance to uncover the mystery behind one of the weirdest ships in the galaxy. Only, the coordinates were empty. Or so it seemed.

From behind Takao, emerged a dark-haired figure, wearing a dark-green signature jumpsuit, the kind every crewmember of Semaphore wore, holding two cups of coffee. His name was Jim Farrell, head of security. A very well educated man, he had done some service in the Admiralty Navy before finally being dishonorably discharged after refusing to torpedo a freighter full of illegal refuges. He was sharp and a good shot, which, after a while, earned him a HoS badge aboard the Semaphore. He extended his arm, offering Takao a cup.

"Any luck with Polybius?"

"Hardly. Radar's dark, and we can't scan far enough anyway. Me and cap agreed to look closely at a few possible spots in the system, and then we burn and hop back to the closest jump relay and signal our contract that the system is empty."

"Why is it so damn hard to find this one ship? I don't remember having such problems before."

"Well, usually radar is not involved in scanning for target. We get the numbers, we punch them in, we jump, scan from transponder signal, ID the target and that's it. This ship doesn't have a transponder. And presuming it's dead, and it's dead cause there's no shifting signatures in the system either, the only two ways we can find it is a close-range bounce-back radar or plain sight contact. Anything further away than CR is just going to get lost in cosmic noise due to the size of that thing being too small to reflect strong enough signal. In layman's terms, it's like finding a needle in a haystack, only you know beforehand _some_ possible areas where needle might or might not be."

Takao took a sip. Not that she needed human food or drinks to live, but she was built to have a sense of taste, and she grew very fond to the taste of coffee. She stared quietly at the radar grid, with Semaphore moving slowly through the area, with Jim sitting beside her, watching the radar as well.

"You know, Tak? You know what I find the most disturbing in this flight?"  
"What?"  
"We got paid in advance. And the contract says that we don't even have to bring anything back. Just finding out that the ship is not there and confirming it is a legal win for us too."

"That thought crossed my mind too, but was this a setup, we would have been jumped by somebody as soon as we dropped in this system. There's nobody here, not in the range of 10 closes systems. If we were set up, we would have known about it by now."

Jim paused for a moment, letting go off his coffee cup.

"You know, maybe you're right. But still. Something is off here. I just can't put my finger over it".

"Sounds to me you're just bored and came here for a trashtalk. I'm sorry I failed to amuse you. Know what?" Takao said as she reached for a tablet flying past her. "Here. Before we departed from Cronos, I dumped all the info I could find on Polybius here. Go ahead, read it. Find a conspiracy theory or two. And let me finish here. This is the last inch and we're burning to the last area and wrapping this up. Just let me do my job, okay?"

Jim took her tablet, kicked back in his chair and started reading, while Takao went back to monitoring the grid. Half an hour passed, and nothing. It seemed like this area was as empty as any other.

"Ugh, check this out, Tak. I checked the last recorded flight log, and this ship was never destined to anything even remotely close to where we are now."

"And? It might have been jumped, hauled here, robbed and left. Or maybe they had to deviate because of a solar storm in some system or whatever. Who the fuck cares, it's been ten years. Besides…"

And Takao suddenly stopped speaking. A dot blipped on the grid. Then, the dot turned into a line. The pair watched silently as the line started getting longer and longer, then started shaping up into something that resembled a contour of a ship.

"So, Tak. We're golden?"

"Not yet. Raise Jeb, I'll send a probe"

Five minutes later, a group of six people assembled around the chart table on the bridge. Above the table was a 3D projection of an old ship. Captain, who was in his 50's, starred at it. Rotating it from time to time, examining the hull.

"We have a camera on the probe?"

Takao made a waving motion and summoned a control panel. After pushing a few buttons, 3D projection vanished, and star charts on the table were replaced with a camera feed from the probe. Carefully controlling the probe's RCS, Takao focused the camera on ship's name, withered, but readable. The sign said: "Polybius".

"So…" Jim starred at the sign, scratching his head. "We good? Is that it? What now, we jump back and report?"

"Ugh, wouldn't it be wiser to inspect the ship?" A young man in a baseball cap said, raising his arm.

"No, Kim, we found the ship, now we go back…"

"No." Captain stopped him. "We go inside, gather some data. I'm not about to just leave when we have this within our grasp. If we can revive the engine, we can take it back, maybe. Otherwise we get as much data as we can and then we go back. A ship like that is a worthy prize."

"Data for what? If Grims Medical needs some data, they can gather it themselves." Jim said. "It's not in our contract."

"For ourselves. This husk is a legend and I'm not going to miss my chance to touch the legend. Takao, Jim, Morris. Suit up, prepare for boarding."

"Wait." Jim made a puzzled expression. "Since when does _she_ need a suit?"

Takao smiled. "Everyone gets a suit. So, I think I should too. Team spirit?"

"Alright. Just no oxygen or jetpack for you, I think you can work that on your own."

"Yeah."

Group assembled in a docking airlock. Anxious, they have waited for the umbilical to connect. Jim looked around the airlock.

"Everyone's ready?"

Team made confirming nods.  
Both Kim and Jim checked on their weapons and gear one last time. Then Kim turned to Takao.

"You're planning on going unarmed?"

Takao didn't answer. Instead, she raised her arms and two small platforms appeared beside each arm and smiled.

"I take that as a no. Hell, where did you get that? I want some too."  
"Ha-ha, you wish!"

The intercom made a loud buzz and transmitted Captain's voice.

"Boarding party, you're clear to cross, we parked as close as we could, but with this much debris outside, it's still going to be a walk."  
"Understood. Heading out." Jim replied, as he pushed the button and cycled the airlock. The crew moved across the umbilical. "Alright, you two. Can't risk sending more people, but with our charming XO here we can split two-one. Me and Morris will go up to the bridge, since it's closer and we've only got jetpacks. We'll check the black box, flight logs." Kim nodded. "Takao, I heard you can use your Klein field or whatever to navigate much faster than us, so you're going to check up on engine deck, see if this piece of junk is still breathing. Swing by life support on your way, if we're moving this ship, I'm not going to sit through the whole trip in this suit. First priority in the engines is restoring power. If this thing's busted, find a backup source, wire it to the bridge. Without it I can only extract the black box and that's about it. Second priority is checking up on main engines after and if you manage to juice it up. Stay frosty and don't close your coms. We're on a tight schedule."  
"Roger that. You know how awkward it is to take orders from you each time we board? Even though I'm technically your SO?"  
"Yeah, but I'd rather keep boardings that way. I've been through shit you wouldn't believe. I can trust your expertise in flying a ship since you were one yourself, but I can't trust you on this. After all, fog ships never boarded human vessels, not themselves. But enough chatter, we're almost to the other side. Split up and move. Keep coms open."

And so, they split. Jim and Morris went to the bridge, while Takao tried to speed through the corridors all the way to the engine deck. Something about this ship seemed off to her. It was this strange, sublime premonition of events that were bound to happen. And happen soon. She paused for a second, slowing down her motion, gradually. And then she closed the general and dialed in Jim.

"Jim. I'm taking a detour."  
"You're taking what? Why did you just close the channel?"  
"Look, I need a few minutes to check up on something. I don't like the feel of this ship."  
"You don't like the feel? Is this an amateur hour?"  
"Look, Jim, you don't have to believe me, but just give me a few minutes extra."  
"What exactly are you planning on doing?"  
"Have you checked any rooms yet?"  
"No. Took a straight shot to the bridge. We're fiddling with the black box as you speak. Why?"  
"No reason, but I'm going too. I've gone past the good chunk of this mess and there's damage everywhere, but no bodies. At all. At least in the corridors. No blood either. Out here. In the Far Frontier. Doesn't this bother you all?"  
"You get all kinds of ships stranded out here. Sometimes people just drop entire ships because of something they don't want anybody to find out. We had this before, remember CH-2506?"  
"Exactly, Jim. Exactly this. A 40-year-old ship departs from a lunar port, bound to the Inner Ring system, suddenly disappears for full ten years without a trace and then just magically pops back in in this god forsaken system on the very edge of the frontier. There's not even a jump beacon here, Jim. Where ever they departed from, they either used an emergency jump or an overdrive burn. I studied the background, Jim. This ship was built 20 years before the sun-hoppers were even a thing and last time it was seen it wasn't fitted with them either. Someone really wanted to leave it as a husk here. Or…"  
"Or?"  
"Or it's not a husk at all."  
"Okay. Do what you will, but I want you to be done with it as soon as you can and I want you back on track right after. Are we clear?"  
"Yes. This is enough."

Takao stood before a closed door. The sign above it said "Auxiliary Medical Station". She tried the door's console. Of course, it wouldn't respond. So, she tried to apply a bit of a force. No dice. She summoned her platforms, and paused to think. Firing them here just to open the door wasn't a best option. God knows how many time this husk spent in such state. For all she knew, entire could be unstable. The clock was ticking, she had to find a safer way. She pried open the console, and tried to use her core to wire some energy to the door. Bingo. The door made a clunky noise as the emergency bolts fell. Now Takao could pry the doors open with her hands. What was behind the door couldn't be fully described by words. There were bodies, all over the place. Some were dismembered, some not. Some were just lying around, but most of them were arranged in a certain, repeating pattern. Almost as if they were stored, or prepared for something. There was no blood.

"Jim, we have a problem."  
"I'm listening."  
"I'm opening the coms channel and putting up a vid stream. I think captain should see this"

As she said, she opened her communications to general and initiated a video feed.

"Captain Adams, Takao speaking. You seeing this?"  
"Sweet Jesus, Tak, what in the fuck…" Jim was about to go on, but he got cut out by the Captain.  
"I'm seeing this. Is that a med station?"  
"Yes."  
"Find a blue locker somewhere on the wall. It's an emergency power supply. Should be enough to boot up local security cams, grab their feeds. Jim!"  
"Sir?"  
"You done with the black box yet?"  
"Finishing as we speak. Them bolts are tricky. I'm hoping we're leaving?"  
"Yes. Takao grabs the feed, you two take the black box back to the umbilical and we're leaving as soon as you three are aboard."  
"Won't argue with tha~"  
"Jim!" Takao suddenly stopped him. "Was that you just now?"  
"No. What? We're not done with the BO yet and you wouldn't hear it anyway, what happened?"  
"Well, I just heard a very loud, and a very mean bang."


	4. Burning Out

Kogou "woke up". Sleeping and dreaming was never a thing that any Fog ship could really experience, but if it wasn't a dream, then what the hell was it? Her foolish attitude, the feeling of superiority and power she had, mixed with a very poor choice in words and an absolutely absurd plot. Mole hunt that she exposed? She demanded something from her superiors? And they went along with it? She assembled a team, and captain Gunzou was in it? Yeah, sure. Maybe this was a glitch. After all, something this stupid and funny could not have been anything else. It was, in fact, a glitch. A strange one, that caused her to dream, but it had no connections with reality. And then she heard her communicator ring. The busy day was about to begin for her, because if someone called Special Agent Shibuya, it was her superiors, making her run errands for them, in the name of glorious Admiralty and Mankind. The voice on the other line, as usual, was her coordinator. O'Neel.

"Wakey-wakey, princess. Duty calls!"  
"Yeah, good morning to you too."  
"Slept well?"  
"You know, I don't exactly sleep. But I had a dream tonight."  
"A dream…" O'Neel sounded surprising. From the day the two were assigned together, he was briefed on Kongou's nature. The way she acted, he was never sure if she was joking or not, and never trusted anything she said to be a mere sarcasm.  
"Yeah. You were in it, although you weren't a coordinator. You were on the board. And I was making demands, to boot. Something about some terrorists blowing half of Admiralty's science compounds and a glorified mole hunt. Iona was in there too. But you wouldn't know her anyway. So what's up today?"  
The other end of the line suddenly fell a bit silent.  
"O'Neel?" Kongou said, still awaiting response.  
"Yeaaaaaaah, right, uhm, I think you're going to like this one. Boot up your holoboard, see for yourself."

She pressed a button on her holoboard, bringing it alive, glowing with a light blue color. On the board, images started to pop up. Debris. Lots of them. Some jammed security footage. Space stations on fire, ships exploding. Headlines from the morning news.

"Yeah." Said Kongou.  
"Yeah." Mirrored O'Neel. "So, ugh, what was that dream about, exactly, again?"  
"Don't even ask."

They both were completely lost right now. A strange sensation filled Kongou's body, something she never felt before. Pulling the info from her memory, she could only describe it in two words, really. Chilling. And Ominous.

"So, the take is, approximately 5 hours ago, we started receiving distress calls from all over domain. Massive, coordinated attacks on multiple facilities, and nobody knows who and why. We have so many reports that we barely have any investigators to spare, so we decided to draw on you as a backup."  
"What do we know so far?"  
"Nothing. Isn't that your job, to know things?"  
"Yeah." Kongo sighed. "I guess. Where's my the carriage?"  
"Your what?"  
"My transport, read so books, for your own sake."  
"Yeah. Naw. Maybe. Never. Your friend is waiting for you at the docks, It's GH-57-B, left side.  
"Hop Scotch?"  
"Hop Scotch. We finally managed to restore it after your previous escapade, and I should express that SDC would really appreciate if you two would be careful with it this time, repairs cost money, and we're not exactly high on budget. Your destination is Altman's Retreat, Horizon-6 facility. Find out what happened, or at least approximate and report back. O'Neel out."  
The line cut off. Kongou sat on her bed, still in her night dress. She snapped her fingers, and said "Coffee", out loud. She never really required any energy, but she did had taste sensors, and coffee was something she really-really liked to have in the morning. Although it was true that she never couldn't (and didn't have to) sleep, and this dream was rather an exception, everyone else seemed to do it at night, and having nothing to do, she would often turn off all of her systems and contemplate quietly within herself, reflecting on her past, present, and future. And nothing like a cup of stunningly bitter and tasty coffee would make for a finishing touch in her reflection ritual. Drinking this aromatic black liquid, she got dressed in her usual business attire. Black cargos, black leather jacket, white shirt. Hair neatly organized behind her head in a wide ponytail. She finished her cup, put it into a dishwasher, closed her room and made her way to the docks.  
In the docks, on a designated spot, her old friend and one of the few humans she could really be close to, was waiting for her, impatiently hopping from one leg to another. Behind him, held by docking clamps, stood "Hop Scotch", 3rd class Blockade Runner, the ship that was more often a home for her than the room she was living in. Arthur waved to her, cheerfully smiling.

"Took you long, huh! I've been sitting here, waiting for you for as long as 10 minutes, my love, you sure know how to keep a man waiting" Arthur was very bad at irony.  
"I'm not your girl to keep you waiting as a man."  
"Oh, but you could be, if you want" said Arthur, giving her a playful, but ultimately harmless gaze. He pushed a button on his communicator, and a door opened on the side of their ship, boarding ramp extending from the hole.  
"After you!"

Engine roared as Arthur was making final preparations. In the meantime, Kongou tuned to the Tower channel, and busy traffic chatter filled the cockpit. After making sure that everything was indeed in order after repairs, Arthur silently nodded to Kongou, and she proceeded to hail the Tower.

"Prosperity Tower, this is ASV Hop Scotch, requesting undocking, bound to Altman's Retreat."

"Copy that Hop Scotch, you are clear to undock, transfer to Earth general and await your window, full read-back"

"Copy that Prosperity Tower, undocking and transferring to Earth general, standing by for transfer window, ASV Hop Scotch"

Hop Scotch made a loud humm after the docking clamps were released and made a move towards the space. There, they assumed a position along one of the safe zone beacons and hailed Earth general.

"Earth General, this is ASV Hop Scotch, bound to Altman's Retreat, standing by near beacon 74, what's our transfer window?"

"See you Hop Scotch, your transfer window is coming up in 60 minutes, your exit is at 400 miles, delta-v is 600 miles per second, please confirm delta-v capacity."

Kongou carefully checked the her fuel status. It wasn't really a necessity in those days, after all, this is what made space expansion possible, but rules were rules. Too many young cadets made space into their grave by leaving on empty stomach.

"Confirming delta-v capacity, confirming exit orbit, standing by for 60, please alert when window is at t minus 15. ASV Hop Scotch"  
"Copy that, Hop Scotch, capacity confirmed, alerting at t minus 60"

For 60 minutes, both Kongou and Arthur were silent. Earth had one of the busiest orbits in Dominion, rivaling even the trading might of Kepler's Head, anything could have happened in those 60 minutes, but once they were free from the busy commuting orbit where Prosperity station resided, they could relax. As promised, 15 minutes before their window, Earth General hailed them to inform about upcoming transfer onto their exit orbit.

"Hop Scotch, this is Earth General, your window is up in 15 minutes, expect low to moderate traffic on exit orbit, your exit vector is 50 degrees. Expect no further guidance, your destination is restricted, prepare transponder at bound gate accordingly."

"Roger that, low to moderate, 50 degrees on exit, Hop Scotch out"

Arthur carefully oriented the ship prograde, and after 50 minutes, slowly started to burn, respecting the maximum transfer speed, carefully scanning his radar for any traffic. One of the perks of having a small vehicle was relatively low delta between origin and transfer orbits, requiring less delta-v and thus a faster transfer. Once in the target orbit, he checked their exit point, which was exactly at 50 degrees.  
"Gotta commend the guy conning Earth General today, 50 degrees is AP today, gonna be a nice exit break." Arthur noted, setting the exit point on his radar and prepping Hop Scotch's march drives for a break.

When the ship was exactly at it's apoapsis, he initiated the exit break. In an instant, marching drives lit up, leaving a long and wide trail behind them, with ship breaking free from orbiting earth, destined for a Hopp's gate bound to Altman's retreat.


End file.
